The fire was waiting to happen! Negligence comes to light one by one: Horrifying confessions from a hotel employee

76 people lost their lives in the fire that broke out at the hotel in Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center, where 238 people were staying. The fire spread rapidly due to the hotel's wooden exterior cladding.

STAFF DESCRIBE NEGLIGENCE

Hotel staff who struggled to save guests during the fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalkaya Ski Center recounted their experiences. Hotel employee Halil Gümüş said that after waking up at night, he and his colleagues were the first to intervene in the fire at the hotel.

Gümüş said, "I woke up to the sound of screams. In fact, those sounds are still ringing in my ears. People had no choice but to say 'Save me'."

"WE OPENED QUILTS, SOME WANTED TO JUMP"

Stating that they began evacuating guests with ladders they found, Gümüş said, "We couldn't evacuate from the upper floors because it was very difficult for us. We started opening quilts. There were those who wanted to jump; we tried to prevent them from jumping with our own means. Because a 3-year-old child was being dangled, they were exposed to smoke. We split into two teams and started the intervention with our own means. We saved about 25 people."

"A NURSE WAS AFRAID OF THE FIRE AND JUMPED"

Hotel staff member Kemal Gümüş, who explained that he and his friends tried to save guests until the fire department arrived, said about those moments, "Many people jumped to save themselves. We had a nurse friend, she passed away. May God have mercy on her. She was afraid of the fire and threw herself down."

NO FIRE ALARM!

Stating that the fire was noticed too late, Gümüş said, "It is a wooden building. If there had been a fire alarm, so many people would not have died. I mean, it exists, but it doesn't work. I mean, most of the people already died from the smoke. Those who didn't die from the smoke jumped down. They jumped down out of fear anyway."

"CHILDREN'S VOICES WERE COMING"

Neçirvan Öner, who works as a cleaning staff member at the hotel, pointed to the hotel's entrance door and said the following:

"I took a mask to my face, wetted the mask, and went inside. Children's voices were coming. I took 2 children with me. I told the children's family to shine a light behind me and said, 'Follow me'. I stayed in that smoke for 2.5-3 minutes. When I went outside, I handed the family directly to the ambulance crews. Then I was going to go back inside and check. Because there were still voices coming from the first floor. Then I started to get dizzy. I felt unwell, I went outside. I went to the adjacent building. I said let me catch my breath a little. I had been poisoned by the smoke. If my friend hadn't come and noticed me like that, maybe I wouldn't be alive here right now. He took me on his back and carried me to the ambulance."

"NO STAIRS, NO FIRE EXTINGUISHERS"

Explaining that people could not find their way through the smoke inside the hotel, that the back of the hotel could not be intervened with due to its location, and that the measures taken against fire at the hotel were insufficient, Öner said, "There is no proper fire escape, there are no fire extinguishers on the floors, the fire alarms do not work."

NO PRECAUTIONS TAKEN

Öner expressed what happened regarding the rescue process of a guest staying on the top floor of the hotel with these words:

"I told him the fire department had arrived, and I asked him to wet the sheets and put them on the edges and bottom of the door. I explained that there should be no gaps at all, and the man did what I said. Today at the hospital, he said to me, 'If I am alive, I owe this life to you. There were no precautions at all, if it weren't for my children, I would have thrown myself down too.' They were taken by the fire department with a basket."

9 people have been detained in connection with the fire.